This week in links – week 38, 2008

The theme for this week is cloud computing.

“The growing impact of free webmail on enterprise e-mail” By Larry Cannell:

A recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project entitled "Use of Cloud Computing Applications and Services" found, not surprisingly, that the most popular cloud computing service is webmail. What I found the most interesting is:

How popular webmail is compared to other cloud services. There’s a significant gap between webmail and the second most popular service (online photo storage).

The differing levels of use across age groups. The survey reported that 77% of respondents age 18-29 use webmail services but only 44% of those age 50-64.fs

These findings indicate an accelerating swing in attitudes toward e-mail that enterprises are surely starting to see.

What is missing here are real-time collaboration services. Cisco obviously wants to dominate that market.

"In 10 Years, Will Cisco Dominate the Desktop?" by Melanie Turek:

With its announced acquistion of Jabber, and recent acquistions of WebEx, IronPort and PostPath, as well as its own telephony, networking and VoIP applications, one has to wonder: Is it possible that Cisco will be the new go-to provider for all communications in the enterprise? (Remember, no one thought they’d own VoIP.)

All that’s missing are productivity apps–what acquisition is next, do you think? And will it set Cisco up to be THE dominant desktop player in the enterprise?

Maybe Zoho's got what Cisco is missing?

"Zoho: The Little Engine That Could (Take on Both Microsoft and Google)" by Bernard Lunn:

We all love the David and Goliath story. What about David vs two Goliaths? That is the improbable story of Zoho, the Web Office startup competing head on with both Microsoft and Google. On top of that, Zoho is from India and who ever heard of a product company from India?

Do you still think that Zoho cannot possibly be a serious contender? GE, after a vigorous evaluation including Google and Microsoft, selected Zoho. That is 400,000 desktops up for grabs worldwide. GE is a master at taking costs out of established processes, they do it relentlessly and continuously and they know how to evaluate and manage the risk of working with start-ups. Where GE break a trail, others are likely to follow.